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Scientists Discovered the Egyptian Secret to Moving Huge Pyramid Stones #Egypt

The question of just how an ancient civilization—without the help of modern technology—moved the 2.5 ton stones that made up their famed pyramids has long plagued Egyptologists and mechanical engineers alike. But now, a team from the University of Amsterdam believes they've figured it out, even though the solution was staring them in the face all along.

It all comes down to friction. See, the ancient Egyptians would transport their rocky cargo across the desert sands, from quarry to monument site with large sleds. Pretty basic sleds, basically just large slabs with upturned edges. Now, when you try to pull a large slab with upturned edges carrying a 2.5 ton load, it tends to dig into the sand ahead of it, building up a sand berm that must then be regularly cleared before it can become an even bigger obstacle.

Wet sand, however, doesn't do this. In sand with just the right amount of dampness, capillary bridges—essentially microdroplets of water that bind grains of sand to one another through capillary action—form across the grains, which doubles the material's relative stiffness. This prevents the sand from berming in front of the sled and cuts the force required to drag the sled in half. In half.

As a UvA press release explains,

The physicists placed a laboratory version of the Egyptian sledge in a tray of sand. They determined both the required pulling force and the stiffness of the sand as a function of the quantity of water in the sand. To determine the stiffness they used a rheometer, which shows how much force is needed to deform a certain volume of sand.

Experiments revealed that the required pulling force decreased proportional to the stiffness of the sand...A sledge glides far more easily over firm desert sand simply because the sand does not pile up in front of the sledge as it does in the case of dry sand.

These experiments served to confirm what the Egyptians clearly already knew, and what we probably already should have. Artwork within the tomb of Djehutihotep, which was discovered in the Victorian Era, depicts a scene of slaves hauling a colossal statue of the Middle Kingdom ruler and in it, a guy at the front of the sled is shown pouring liquid into the sand. You can see it in the image above, just to the right of the statue's foot.

R.I.P Bassem Sabry (1982-2014)

Bassem Sabry, a voice of Egypt's 2011 revolution, dies in accident

Cairo-based journalist and strategist for liberal party Dostour was respected for his analysis of regional politics

http://anarabcitizen.blogspot.com/

One of the voices of Egypt's 2011 revolution and its aftermath, Bassem Sabry, has died in an accident aged 31.

A Cairo-based journalist and political strategist, Sabry rose to prominence during the Arab uprisings of 2011, achieving widespread acclaim for his analysis of regional politics in several local and global outlets, including al-Monitor and the Huffington Post. He was frequently cited in international media, including the Guardian.

For a period, Sabry was also a strategist for Dostour, a new liberal party founded by Mohamed ElBaradei, a figurehead of Egypt's 2011 uprising who is now in exile.

But whatever his formal affiliations, Sabry was admired for rarely letting his personal preferences skew his commentary. In a deeply polarised and often vicious political environment in which many others abandoned the centre ground, Sabry won respect across the political spectrum for his principled, fair and insightful analysis.

Paying tribute to Sabry, the Cairo analyst HA Hellyer said: "I was honoured to call Bassem Sabry a companion, a colleague and most of all, a friend. At a time when Egypt sorely needed voices that rejected destructive polarisation and mutual hatred, Bassem was one of the few that insisted on standing for far loftier principles. He believed in a better Egypt for all Egyptians – and worked tirelessly, often very quietly and without taking credit, in pursuit of that goal."

Zeinobia, another well-known Egyptian blogger, wrote on her website: "I know that he did his best to change the world around him to a better place."

Sabry's death also sparked a wave of emotion on social media. "Only the good die young," wrote Ragia Omran, one of Egypt's leading human rights lawyers. "What a great loss for those who still have hope for a better Egypt."

Sabry's cause of death could not immediately be verified. His funeral will take place at west Cairo's Mostafa Mahmoud mosque on Wednesday, with a memorial at the nearby Hamdiyyah Shadhiliyya mosque at sunset on Saturday.

last tweet form him was ask for blood for lil girl

by http://goo.gl/T78yIf

Tweets about ""Bassem Sabry"" Tweets about "#باسم_صبري"

Releasing 1.5 Million Balloons Into The Air

With the best of intentions, Tom Holowach set out to create a massive spectacle.

As Gizmodo reports, Holowach was the mastermind behind Cleveland, Ohio's Balloon Fest on September 27, 1986.

Holowach explained his role in a Q&A this week:

I was the Project Manager for this event. I worked on it for 6 months and lived in Cleveland for a month preparing for it. We had to design a structure this filled a city square and could stand up to 90 MPH winds, which was building code. The one-piece net was fabricated by the exact company I found in So Cal who built the cargo nets for the Space Shuttle. Kids in schools "sold" balloon sponsorships at 2 for a dollar that went to United Way. The goal was 2 million but we stopped at 1.4 + million.

Though the event was a spectacle, as can be seen from the photos below, Balloon Fest ended in tragedy.

As Viral Forest explains, a storm moved in and forced all of the balloons back over the city. Two fisherman whose boat had overturned were unable to be rescued because Coast Guard helicopters couldn't find the vessel beneath the impenetrable mass of balloons.

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